Ruth Scammell

Genius who studied in Havant is off to Oxford University with five A and A*s under his belt

GOOD leadership to get rid of weaknesses in teaching has helped a Fareham school climb up the Ofsted ladder.

Wickham Church of England Primary School was inspected last month and has gone from a satisfactory rating up to good.

Inspectors say teaching is consistently good and in lessons pupils are interested and actively involved.

Children make good progress across the whole school and are now reaching standards in line with national averages.

Leaders and governors have also worked effectively to improve the quality of teaching and to ensure that pupils make good progress.

Maria Ackland, headteacher at the school, said: ‘We were delighted because I have been here three and a half years now. I took over as headteacher of a satisfactory school, but it became apparent quite quickly that the school was no longer satisfactory.

‘Within my first term I was able to do a very thorough evaluation. The local authority helped me with that.

‘I found that many aspects of our provision were inadequate. We have worked really hard. So it was nice to have the recognition.

‘Now to have got into the good bracket at a time when Ofsted have raised the bar is brilliant because it shows all that we have achieved.’

Miss Ackland added that it had been a long journey for the school.

‘I haven’t got a single teacher here who was here when I first started,’ she said.

‘They have worked together as a team really focusing on the need of every individual learner.

‘Now we have a really positive ethos. I make sure that we don’t talk about what they can’t do, we talk about what they can do.

‘We work really hard to make sure that the children can fulfil their potential.’

Inspectors said that to become outstanding, the school needs to have a higher percentage of good and outstanding teaching so that all pupils consistently make good progress in lessons.

And the achievement of pupils needs to be improved, focusing on reading and writing, and also giving pupils more opportunity to use their maths skills in other subjects.

Miss Ackland added: ‘I think we now have a really secure teaching and leadership team.

‘I’m confident that we can move forward and this report is a springboard for further improvement.’